Maximum Power Point Tracking in Photovoltaic Systems Based on Global Sliding Mode Control with Adaptive Gain Scheduling

Abstract

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controllers have already achieved remarkable efficiencies. For smaller photovoltaic (PV) systems, any improvement will not really be worth mentioning as an achievement. However, for large solar farms, even a fractional improvement will eventually create a significant impact. This paper presents an MPPT control scheme using global sliding mode control (GSMC) with adaptive gain scheduling. In the two-loop controller, the first loop determines the maximum power point (MPP) reference using online calculations, while the GSMC with adaptive gain scheduling in the second loop adjusts the boost converter’s pulse width modulation (PWM) to force the PV system to operate at the MPP with improved performance. The adaptive gain scheduling regulates the gain of the switching control to maintain the controller performance over a wide range of operating conditions, while GSMC guarantees the system robustness throughout the control process by eliminating the reaching phase and improving MPPT performance. The overall PV system also has Lyapunov stability. Furthermore, the robustness analysis of the proposed controller is also performed under load variations and parametric uncertainties at various temperatures and irradiances. In the simulations, the proposed MPPT control scheme has shown faster response than other controllers, reaching the set point with rise time 0.03 s as compared to 0.07 s and 0.13 s for quasi sliding mode control (QSMC) and conventional sliding mode control (CSMC), respectively. The proposed controller showed an overshoot of 1.2 V around a steady state value of 21.9 V as compared to 1.51 V and 1.45 V, respectively, for QSMC and CSMC for a certain parametric variation. Furthermore, the proposed controller and the QSMC-based scheme showed a steady-state error of 0.3 V, while the CSMC-based approach has a more significant error. In conclusion, the proposed MPPT control scheme has a faster response and low tracking error with minimal oscillations.